ELIZABETH I 1533 – 1603

ElizabethI was queen of England and Ire­land (1558-1603), daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Eliza­beth was the longest-reigning English mon­arch in nearly two centuries and the first woman to successfully occupy the English throne. Called Glorianna and Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth enjoyed enormous popular­ity during her life and became an even great­er legend after her death.

Elizabeth’s reign was marked by her effec­tive use of Parliament and the Privy Coun­cil, a small advisory body of the important state officials, and by the development of legal institutions in the English counties. Elizabeth firmly established Protestantism in England, encouraged English enterprise and commerce, and defended the nation against the powerful Spanish naval force known as the Spanish Armada. Her reign was noted for the English Renaissance, an outpouring of poetry and drama led by William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and Christopher Marlowe* that remains unsur­passed in English literary history.

She was the last of the Tudor monarchs, never mar­rying or producing a heir, and was succeed­ed by her cousin, James VI of Scotland.

Elizabeth was born at Greenwich Palace in London on September 7, 1533. Her parents, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, wanted a son as heir and were not pleased with the birth of a daughter. When she was two her moth­er was beheaded for adultery, and Eliza­beth was exiled from court. She was later placed under the protection of Catherine Parr, Henry’s sixth wife, and educated in the same household as her half-brother, Edward. Both were raised Protestant. The noted scholar Roger Ascham* later served as her tutor, and he educated her as a potential heir to the throne rather than as an insignificant daughter of the monarch.

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*Ascham, Roger (1515-1568) — English scholar and royal tutor.

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Elizabeth under went rigorous training in Greek, Latin, rhetoric, and was an intel­lectually gifted pupil.

Edward VI succeeded his father in 1547 at the age of nine. Because of her position as a member of the royal family, Elizabeth be­came a pawn in the intrigues of the nobles who governed in the boy’s name. One of them twice proposed marriage to her. When her Roman Catholic half-sister, Mary I, in­herited the crown in 1553, Elizabeth faced different dangers. She was now sought out to lead Protestant conspiracies, despite the fact that she had supported Mary’s acces­sion and attended Catholic services. In 1554 Mary had Elizabeth imprisoned in the Tow­er of London, briefly threatened her with execution, and then placed her under house arrest. Elizabeth lived quietly at her fami­ly’s country retreat north of London until she became queen upon her sister’s death in 1558. Elizabeth’s experiences as a child and young adult helped her develop keen political instincts that allowed her to skill­fully balance aristocratic factions and court favourites during her long reign.

The nation that Elizabeth inherited was ex­periencing a steady increase in population. During the 16th century the population of England and Wales would roughly double, and by Elizabeth’s death in 1603 would reach 5 million. The continued population growth placed strains on the economy, which was made worse by serious harvest failures in every decade of Elizabeth’s reign. Prices for food and clothing skyrocketed in what be­came known as the Great Inflation. The 1590s were the worst years of the century, marked by starvation, epidemic disease, and roving bands of vagrants looking for work.

Elizabeth’s government enacted legislation known as the Poor Laws, which made every local parish responsible for its own poor, created workhouses, and severely punished homeless beggars. Parliament also passed bills to ensure fair prices in times of short­age and to regulate wages in times of unemployment. One of the queen’s most im­portant economic decision was to issue a new currency that contained a standard amount of precious metal. This raised con­fidence in the currency and also allowed businesses to enter into long-term financial contracts.

During Elizabeth’s reign, England expand­ed trade overseas and the merchant com­munity grew. Private shipbuilding boomed and navigational advances made long sea voyages safer. England’s chief commodity was woolen cloth, traded mostly at the Dutch port to Antwerp for finished goods and such luxuries as French wines. Cloth exports grew over the course of the reign, but suffered from competition from finer Spanish products and from Antwerp’s decline after its harbor silted up and became impassable by the mid-1560s. In the 1560s financier Sir Thomas Gresham* founded the Royal Ex­change to help merchants find secure mar­kets for their goods.

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* Gresham, Thomas (1519-1579) — English merchant financier.

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At the same time, new enterprises like the Muscovy Company were chartered to find outlets for English products. In 1600 the government granted the English East India Company a monopoly to trade in Asia, Af­rica, and America. The desire to expand overseas trade was also a motive in the ven­tures of English explorers such as Sir Franc­es Drake, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir Walter Raleigh*.

Such adventures estab­lished the first English outposts in North America.

Elizabeth’s accession marked the final change in the nation’s official religion. Her father and half-brother established Protes­tantism in England, but her half-sister, Mary, attempted forcibly to restore Catholi­cism. As Henry VIII’s reign had terrorized Catholics, so Mary’s persecuted Protestants. Under Mary, prominent Protestant clergy­men were either executed or they fled abroad. The power of the pope was reestab­lished in England, though even Mary could do nothing to restore the church lands off during Henry’s reign.

Elizabeth inherited a highly charged reli­gious situation, which she handled with great skill. Although there was never any doubt she would return England to Protes­tantism, Elizabeth had to contend with op­position from both Catholics and radical Protestants. Catholic bishops and peers con­trolled the House of Lords and fought Eliz­abeth’s first attempts to bring back Protestantism. Protestants exiled under the reign of Mary I returned to England, and many brought with them new and radical Protes­tant ideas, especially those of John Calvin*, a French religious reformer.

Calvin stressed the importance of predestination, the be­lief that salvation was predetermined for some people and not for others. Calvin also wanted the clergy to play a less important role in the state church and to concern them­selves with preaching the gospel rather that in becoming bishops.

Under Elizabeth, England again broke with the pope, Catholic services were forbidden, priests were allowed to marry, and relics and decorations were removed from the church­es. In attempting to diffuse the religious sit­uation, Elizabeth tried to accommodate Cath­olic sensibilities in matters she judged less essential. She used Parliament to establish the official doctrine of the new church, which ensured that the voice of Catholic peers would be heard. Under the Act of Supremacy, she assumed the title of Supreme Governor of the Church, rather than the title of Supreme Head, a move to placate critics because Su­preme Governor sounded less powerful. She would not allow retaliation against those who had assisted Mary, and she treated with some leniency those who refused to swear an oath to her supremacy.

The English form of Protestantism was de­fined in part by two measures enacted dur­ing Elizabeth’s reign-the Act of Uniformi­ty of 1559 and the Thirty-nine Articles of 1563. The Act of Uniformity established a common prayer book and set the basic cer­emonies of the church. The Thirty-nine Ar­ticles established religious doctrine that governed the church until the English Revolution in the 1640s. Both acts were com­promises that favoured the views of more conservative or moderate Protestant groups.

Elizabeth viewed the church as an insepara­ble part of her monarchy and would not tol­erate challenges to it. Such challenges came from both Catholicism who clung to the old faith and plotted to remove the queen, and from Puritans, radical Protestants who want­ed to abolish all traces of Catholicism.

Catholic challenges and plots persisted through much of Elizabeth’s reign, and Elizabeth reacted to them strongly. In 1569 a group of powerful Catholic nobles in northern England rose in rebellion but were savagely repressed. The northern earls were executed, their property and those their followers was confiscated, and their heirs were deprived of their inheritance. In 1570 the pope excommunicated Elizabeth, sanc­tioning Catholic efforts to dethrone her. In 1571 an international conspiracy was uncovered to assassinate her in favor of her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587). Although Mary was beheaded in 1587 after years of being at the centre of Catholic plots against Elizabeth, such plots did not end until England defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. Elizabeth’s bat­tles against the Puritans were less conclu­sive. She suspended Archbishop of Canter­bury Edmund Grindal* when he would not punish Puritans who refused to kneel or make the sign of the cross.

She also im­prisoned a member of Parliament in 1576 for introducing a bill to change the prayer book, and she refused to accept the Lam­beth Articles of 1595, which contained a Calvinist, and more radical, interpreta­tion of the doctrine of predestination. But Elizabeth’s efforts did not stop the Puri­tans from criticizing the established church, attacking bishops, and converting others to their views. The significance of the Elizabethan religious settlement is that it was able to hold the vast majority of the people together, despite being a compro­mise few would have chosen.

The difficulties Elizabeth experienced gov­erning the English state were enhanced by prejudices against women rulers. Though she presented herself in the traditional images of the monarchy, such as carrying the sword of state, commissioning a portrait showing her bestriding the counties of England, and even appearing in armor, Elizabeth realized the importance of securing the cooperation of powerful men in order to rule effectively. She made extensive use of the Privy Council and summoned ten parliaments during her reign. She used Parliament to raise taxes and to endorse her policies, but also allowed its members to suggest laws regarding local is­sues, something rarely permitted by prior monarchs. The House of Lords and the House of Commons both grew in size during her reign, but they remained councils of the rath­er than parts of an independent legislature. When she did not like the advice Parliament offered, she ended its sessions.

Elizabeth effectively expanded royal gov­ernment by increasing the role of sheriffs in the counties and by relying upon justices of the peace to perform the basic adminis­trative work of local government. Thousands of gentlemen served in this capacity, each an official, if unpaid, member of the re­gime. Meeting in quarter sessions (that is, in sessions held four times a year), justices enforced everything from the Poor Laws to statutes against theft.

At the centre of her government, Elizabeth was fortunate in having a succession of ca­pable ministers, including Sir Nicholas Ba­con, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester*, who was her personal favourite.

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*Backon, Nicholas (1509-1579) — English politician;

Walsingham, Francis (1530-1590) — English politician who ad­vocated a strong anti-Spanish policy and ran the efficient government spy system that made it work;

Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (1532-1588) — English courtier.

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She favoured Leicester so extensively their relationship became the subject of rumors. But the ablest of all Eliz­abethan ministers was William Cecil, Lord Burghley*, who held the offices of secre­tary and treasurer.

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*Burghley, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (1520-1598) — English politician, chief advisor to Elizabeth Ias Secretary of State from 1558.

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Burghley served the queen loyally for 40 years and more than anyone else guided Elizabeth’s policies.

Burghley’s lifelong concern was for the queen to provide an heir for succession. Having refused suitors pressed upon her when a princess, as a queen, Elizabeth was never able to make a decision to marry and she had no desire to share power with a husband. She rejected her sister Mary’s husband, Philip II, king of Spain, who wished to remain allied with English naval power, as well as nearly every eligible Eu­ropean royal bachelor, including a future king of France. At first Burghley feared Elizabeth would marry his rival, the Earl of Leicester, whose wife had died under mys­terious circumstances. Then he feared Eliz­abeth might suddenly die, throwing the kingdom into chaos, a fear magnified by her bout with smallpox in 1562.

The failure to settle the succession encour­aged aristocratic factions to grow around the queen. Until her execution, Mary, Queen of Scots, was a focus of intrigue. In her prime, Elizabeth was adept at balancing competing claimants for her favour, keeping them loy­al and dependent. But toward the end of her reign, the contest between Burghley and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex*, led to an open rebellion against her.

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*Essex, Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1566-1601) — Eng­lish soldier and politician. Became a favourite with Queen Elizabeth I in 1587. Was executed.

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Essex’s attempt to overthrow Elizabeth in 1601 was success­fully put down, but it demonstrated that the queen’s power had weakened.

The failure to secure her succession was also a factor in the international struggles for power in which England engaged. Because she would not marry a catholic prince, she was drawn into the conflicts of European Protestants. Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 at the end of a disastrous war that her sister Mary fought against France. One of Elizabeth’s first acts was to conclude a treaty that gave up English control over the French port of Calais, a blow to Eng­land’s prestige. Despite this truce, trouble with France continued over developments in Scotland. Mary, Queen of Scots, a catho­lic, was married briefly to the king of France, and after his death in 1560 returned to rule Scotland. But Scotland was undergoing its own Protestant Reformations that was supported by Elizabeth and, with France’s assistance, opposed by Mary. In 1568 Mary lost her Scottish crown and was exiled to England, where she continued to conspire against Elizabeth.

A similar struggle took place on French soil in 1562 and 1563, as French Protestants, supported by Elizabeth, fought religious freedom from their Catholic monarch. English military expeditions to Scotland and France proved expensive and ineffective. Troops were badly trained, poorly equipped, and none too eager for battle. Most importantly, Elizabeth never gave her wholehearted support to the French Protestants, whom she regarded as rebels against their monarch.

The most significant English internation­al al expeditions were in support of the Dutch Protestants. In 1581 the Dutch, then part of the Spanish Empire, proclaimed their independence, which was contested by Philip II of Spain, a Catholic. Spain was the most powerful nation in Europe, and the Dutch could not hope survive as an independent nation without outside help. The Earl of Leicester persuaded a reluc­tant Elizabeth to support the Dutch Prot­estants, and in 1585 he was given com­mand of an army that fought with the Dutch. The campaign was a disaster not only did it fail to prevent the loss of the crucial port of Antwerp, but it also roused the anger of Philip II against England.

Philip feared that English assistance would hinder his efforts to reconquer the Dutch, especially since English ships could easily send vital supplies. In 1587 Philip began organizing an immense naval fleet, the Span­ish Armada, for a direct attack upon Eng­land. His objectives were to destroy the English navy, force Elizabeth out of the war in the Netherlands, and gain concessions for English Catholics. The Spanish Arma­da, one of the most powerful fighting forc­es ever known, was no match for the “Prot­estant wind” that blew many of the Spanish ships off course in August 1588, or for the smaller, swifter English vessels that were able to fire cannonballs more quickly than the galleons. The defeat of the Spanish Ar­mada was the high point of the queen’s reign and united the nation. But it did not end the war with Spain, which continued for the remaining 15 years of Elizabeth’s life. She died on March 23, 1603, and was succeeded by her cousin James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England.

When Elizabeth died, one of the great ep­ochs of English history ended. Her 45-year rule decisively shaped the future of England as a stable monarchy governed through the cooperation of crown and local elite. The roles played by Parliament and the justices of the peace, two of the most characteristic of all English institutions, solidified during her reign and were indispensable thereafter. The Protestant religion was firmly established as England’s faith, and though religious con­flict was to be serious problem for another century, it was within the context of the Elizabethan church settlement that the bat­tles were fought. The defeat of the Spanish Armada was a cause for national celebration, and “Glorious ’88” was spoken of generations later when Elizabeth’s birthday was still celebrated as a national holiday. The defeat of Spain established the glory of the English navy and inspired merchants and explorers toward the colonization of the world.